Fiordland 24th April to 27th April 2006 It's a relatively long drive up to Te Anau, the heart of Doubtful Sound, the next day. We organize trips to Milford and Doubtful Sounds and have lunch overlooking lake Te-Anau. The following day we are off down to Manapouri to catch a boat across lake Te-Anau towards Doubtful Sound (together with about 200 others) The weather is not great, in fact it's positively lashing it down. The scenery is totally amazing and that's even before we've got out to the mouth of the sound itself. We stop at the hydro-electric power station and take a tour round and it's all pretty impressive stuff, I won't go into the Engineering aspect of it all but let's just say constructing the power station beneath about 100m of Granite is pretty impressive stuff. That's definitely going down as a spot of CPD. You see, I come away on an 11 month holiday and I can still get my token 5 days a year in, perhaps I should be being sponsored to do this, after all I am writing up the reports aren't I? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. From there a bus takes us to Deep Cove and we board our Catamaran. On our way out along Doubtful sound itself some Bottlenosed Dolphins decide to come alongside the boat for a bit of a play and a couple of them do a triple backflip-with-pike right in front of our boat. Absolutely brilliant. At this point Stu berates Amy for not getting any decent photos (like he would have done any better?) When we get to the Tasman Sea the sun comes out and (most of you have probably seen the photos) the scenery is totally awe-inspiring. The following day it's the turn of Milford Sound to take centre stage and once more it does not let us down. Milford is perhaps slightly more dramatic than Doubtful Sound but Doubtful is longer and wider. Anyway the actual drive up to Milford Sound is amazing in itself and the van does admirably in getting both up and down some totally huge mountains. It is impossible to get an idea of the size and scale of these huge mountains rising out of the sea almost vertically. It is both dramatic and beautiful and has to be seen, to be believed. Only when we see another boat sailing along the Sound do we get an idea of the size. The boat in the distance looks like a tiny speck of dandruff framed against giant outcrops of rock rising majestically out of the sea. Awesome. Stu's favourite was Doubtful sound but it's all good stuff. We have a long drive in the evening back to Te Anau and get ready for the testing Routeburn track the next day. All the best Love Stu & Amy.